It's a beautiful December morning. The early sun is announcing a hot day that will undoubtedly hit the high eighties. People are slowly waking. A man raises the metal gate of his butchery. The grocery store across the street has been open for hours.
I am browsing the breakfast menu of a small Buenos Aires café, somewhere in Palermo, trying to figure out the difference between "churros" and "porras". I don't feel adventurous and I would usually settle for a "pincho de tortilla" – I know what that is. Fortunately today is my lucky day - I am holding a freshly autographed copy of Dan Perlman's Saltshaker Spanish – English – Spanish Food & Wine Dictionary.
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DB: We really enjoyed our dinner at Casa Saltshaker in Buenos Aires and loved the black diamond sauce marinade. Are themed menus mostly games of words?
Most of the menus tend to be based on historic events or Independence Days or things of that nature, so rather than a play on words they're more likely to just be my takes on traditional ethnic dishes. When we do have an offbeat theme, such as the one you attended, yes, wordplay often comes into it.
In terms of how I pick a theme - I usually start with taking a look at the date(s) in Wikipedia and one or two sites that are of the "Today in History" sort - and just see what catches my fancy. From there, the menu starts with the theme, but also takes into account what's available here - I try to use ingredients that are in season, and in Argentina that's much more necessary than in the States, when things aren't "in season", they're simply not to be found. I add a touch of a personal style that tends to pop up over and over, things that are among my favorites styles of food to cook.
DB: Have you always been interested in culinary etymology?
Yes, culinary etymology, hmm ... and for that matter entymology ... has always been a fascination - I used to make lists of the ways to say certain favorite ingredients in multiple languages, and/or lists of key ingredients in various cuisines in the native languages of their source countries.
DB: How did you come up with the concept of a specialized culinary dictionary?
Mostly, the dictionary came about because one didn't exist, and I personally needed one. I started it off as a simple list on my computer, then when a few friends would ask me about various words, I posted the list up on my blog as a separate page... as it began to grow, the idea of a book came about - I initially put it out as an ebook, but that turned out to be impractical for most people, who wanted it as something they could carry along, and not as a big sheaf of papers. So I decided to publish it in paperback book form.
DB: Aside of thoroughly blogged traveling and eating ethnic foods of Latin and South America, what was the process of assembling the book?
In truth, travel, eating, etc., didn't play the most major part in putting the book together - some, yes, I'd copy down words on menus, or in shops, and then research them - and that was the major part, research. I used multiple existing "regular" dictionaries, spending time in libraries going through food books, various food glossaries and lexicons, online sites that specialized in the cuisines of various countries (don't forget outside of Latin/South America - the Caribbean and Spain also figured into this). Plus I put the word out in the "blogosphere" for anyone who wanted to look through the listing and see if there were local words, colloquial words, expressions, idiomatic stuff, that were unique to wherever they lived, or at least that they found "missing". Then I'd do more research to verify - often finding that something was called by a name in a local native language, as opposed to Spanish, and then deciding if it was common enough use to include anyway.
DB: What is your all-time favorite food word? Is it also one of your favorite foods?
My all time favorite food word is one I learned as a kid in French class... I mean, how can you beat "pamplemousse"... and yes, I like grapefruit, though I wouldn't list it as one of my favorite foods... though possibly my favorite juice...
DB: What are some of the most fascinating Spanish foods that are called the same word, but differ from one Spanish-speaking country to another?
Actually more fascinating is the reverse of your question - the number of different words there are for something that in English we only really have one - popcorn leaps to mind as the major one - I have 15 different words for it that I found for the first edition of the dictionary - and another that I've found since that will go into the next edition. The flip of that might be something like "aguja", which, depending on which country and what context you're using it in can mean: needle, garfish, needlefish, chuck steak, rib roast, bubbles, sprits, fizz...
DB: When I traveled to Buenos Aires I bought a very helpful travel English-Spanish dictionary. Why should I also carry "English-Spanish Food & Wine"?
Why carry this dictionary, or have one? Well, most travel dictionaries or guides include only a very small number of food items - and often only a simple listing of key ingredients that you'll encounter on a menu. The guidebooks might have a few simple phrases for how to ask for things, and that's usually the extent of gastronomic and wine info available. For anyone who wants to really know what the ingredients listed are on a menu or in a magazine or book, to know the verbs that are used for various styles of cooking, and the important dishes from various Spanish speaking countries (where the dish often doesn't relate to the name, which may just be fanciful), this dictionary is a must have. There's simply no other gastronomic/wine dictionary out there that's remotely the depth of this one (over 5,000 definitions). Keep in mind, too, that it's not just Spanish to English, but also the reverse.
DB: You said that the dictionary is constant work in progress. What is your last finding that will be included in the next version?
I'm constantly finding new words for things, or someone sends me info on something I didn't include. The most recent was researching okra - I was trying to find some here, and every word I knew for it in Spanish no one had a clue what I was talking about - turns out that here in Argentina they use the French name, and from there, as I started looking into it, I found another 3-4 words for it used in various parts of the world. I keep an "additions" list on my blog for anyone who buys the book to be able to add words to it - laid out on a monthly basis so that it's easy to figure out what you have and haven't added. I expect the second edition of the book will be ready somewhere around the end of 2008, along with some reformatting - and I'll probably add both some illustrations (done by talented cover artist Frank Rocca), and perhaps some sidebars with a few recipes or notes about one topic or another.
DB: Take us for a short tour of your favorite culinary Buenos Aires, what are the places not to miss?
One has to start off with a steak - even vegetarians need to start off with one - my spot of choice is El Trapiche in Palermo - it's an old family style parrilla, or steakhouse, with huge portions, and it's relatively gentle on the wallet.
But truly, I like to see what creative chefs are doing with Argentine cuisine - I'm not talking about things like the folks dabbling in foams and gels and such, but modern twists on the classics - the two best spots are undoubtedly Urondo Bar out in Parque Chacabuco, which is a real hike, and even a long taxi ride, but worth the trip, and Almanza, in Palermo, which does some fun stuff with a lot of Patagonian products.
Despite the need for a steak, sometimes you want something else, and my new fave spot for fish is Damblee, in the Once area of town, where in a spot that looks like it ought to be a Chock-ful-o-nuts coffee shop, you get great service, and some truly delightful Mediterranean style seafood. In a similar vein is the not to be missed Jangada, in Palermo, the only spot in town specializing in the river fish of the Parana Delta a bit north of the city.
The city's packed full of "ethnic" restaurants, a relatively new phenomenon - there's the don't miss (and amazingly around for over 40 years) traditional Japanese spot, Yuki, near to the Congreso area, there's the beautiful elegance of the tea garden and dining room at Buddha BA, in Chinatown, for pan-Asian cuisine, there's Moche, in Palermo, for high class Peruvian cooking from the former chef of the Peruvian embassy, and many more that I can't think of at the moment.
And, of course, you owe it to yourself to just hang out at a neighborhood spot that has no pretentions to be anything but that, a regular favorite is Rodi-Bar in Recoleta, which also offers up one of the best steak sandwiches in town.
For wine, you could go with a classic, a wine bar like Gran Bar Danzon in Recoleta, but much as I like it, I really prefer a spot where I can do a bit of people watching and have some great food - my choice, Primafila, on the upper level of the Buenos Aires Design Center, with a very well put together wine list and great Italian food to go with it. If I'm in the mood to sample, I head to Epicureous in the Las Cañitas area, which is a small, quiet restaurant in the back of a wine shop - and all the great selections that go with being in that sort of locale. And finally, when wine isn't hitting the spot, the "in" spot for cocktails is to head to the not-so-secret-anymore Ocho-Siete-Ocho, or 878, in Palermo, a speakeasy sort of setup with a great bar.
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You can find Dan on FoodCandy, at Casa Saltshaker or DanPerlman.net. Buy his book here.